FILBI.UT. 165 



to think, that the Greeks procured it from more eastern 

 countries. They were first cultivated in this country by 

 Mr. John Ray, in 1665, and are generally called cobnuts. 



Pliny informs us, that Vitellius brought the nuts, called 

 fistichs, into Italy, a little before the death of Tiberius, 

 and that Flaccus Pompeius, who served in the wars with 

 Vitellius, carried them into Spain. Nuts are now grown 

 in that country in such quantities, according to the ac- 

 count of Mr. Swinburn, that from a single wood, near 

 Recus, sixty thousand bushels have been collected in one 

 year, and shipped from Barcelona, whence they are called 

 Barcelona nuts. 



It was the custom among the Romans for the bride- 

 groom, on the night of his marriage, to scatter nuts 

 among the boys, intimating that he dropped boyish 

 amusements, and thenceforth was to act as a man. 



